'He just disappeared': Schoolboy, 15, soaked and injured after plunging down 8ft sinkhole

A schoolboy had to be taken to hospital after plunging into an 8ft sinkhole on his walk home from class.

Sam Foulkes was walking along Kearsley Road in Stoneclough last Wednesday (January 15) when the pavement "gave way" underneath him, forming a narrow hole about 2x1 metres in size.

"It was pretty traumatic," the 15-year-old told the M.E.N: "I stepped on this path and it just gave way, and I fell about eight ft. I don't remember much because I think I was in shock."

His father Stuart added "It was about 4pm so the light was OK and there was no indication of a sinkhole. He just took a step and fell through the floor."

Luckily, a passer-by came to Sam's rescue. "He jumped out of his car and stopped traffic, running across the road, cause he saw Sam just disappear into the ground. He was able to lie flat on the ground and pull him out. Sam's quite tall - about 5ft 8 - but he was in waist-high water and he couldn't get out. It was about seven or eight foot deep."

"The passer-by pulled Sam out and he was covered head to toe in water and grime. If he hadn't been passing, or if Sam had knocked himself out, who knows what could have happened?"

Sam escaped serious injuries in the fall, but he was taken to hospital the next day to treat soft tissue damage in his arm and a cut on his chin. The incident was reported to police and the local council, who cordoned off the hole.

"My main concern is, what if it happens again to someone else?" said Stuart. "There are other sinkholes that have appeared - I'd hate for it to be a car going through there."

A spokesperson for Bolton Council said: “The issue was raised as an out of hours emergency to the highways call out team last Wednesday (15 January) and we attended and made the